X FACTOR star Chico has spoken for the first time about his secret anguish - the loss of his kid brother to leukaemia.

The singer was heartbroken when his beloved Faisal died before his seventh birthday.

Chico, 14 at the time of the tragedy, fought back tears as he said: "He was such a handsome little boy - a beautiful angel, a perfect child. No wonder God took him."

The unlikely pop sensation - who topped the charts with It's Chico Time - added: "Faisal was an extraordinary person. I used to just sit there in awe, transfixed by what he was saying. He was an unbelievable kid."

Ex-stripper Chico, 34, recalled the agonising time when his family learned Faisal was dying of the cancer. The Moroccan- born former goatherder said: "Faisal lived with my dad and stepmum in Britain. My sister Sabah and I had just come over when he got sick. He was six and I hadn't spent as much time with him as I would have liked.

"We used to visit him in hospital and play games and talk. He was very close to me.

"When the doctors told us he wouldn't pull through it hit me like a sledgehammer.

"You don't think someone is going to pass away, you just think they'll get better. I wished he had stayed around a little longer so I could have got to know him more. He loved me to bits and he was not an ordinary child.

"It was like talking to a 40-year-old, he was wise beyond his years. His vocabulary was amazing, I used to just sit there and go 'Wow'."

Chico - real name Yousseph Slimani - told how his parents spent every available moment at the stricken youngster's bedside in the Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey.

"The bravery, the immense, sheer pain he was going through, but I never heard him complain," he said. "He was the be all and end all for everyone and we just adored him."

Chico said he felt the full impact of the tragedy much later. "Years down the road it really hit me," he said. "I thought, Oh God. He is like a missing part of my heart and I don't know if it can ever be filled."

Chico - a lothario who has bedded 1,500 women - was talking during a break in his live appearances on the X Factor Tour. He revealed how he is determined to use his new-found popularity to launch a charity to help kids everywhere.

"With all of this fame thing, I can really begin to make a difference. It's unbelievable.

"Before the record came out, I was front page news as Mr Casanova sleeping with hundreds of women. Then suddenly I've become the Pied Piper.

"I've become this person that is loved by kids and even I can't get my head around it.

"When you know you have that much power to put that many smiles on people's faces you can't describe it. It's like a miracle and I think to be loved by women or men is one thing, but to be loved by children you have to be genuine. They can sense something in you that nobody else can."

He hopes to get his charity, the Rainbow Foundation, off the ground within a year.

Chico said: "It is called Rainbow because it involves children of all colours. No matter where you are, if you need our help, food, shelter or spiritual education, we'll be there."

The star added: "Before, I didn't have the chance to put my views across.

"I want to have fun and not take myself too seriously but at the same time I'm coming with a message - Chico makes you believe that you can achieve."

Whatever happens, Chico - who asked for his interview fee to go to the Royal Marsden - will always have Faisal in mind.

He said: "Every time I go out to entertain, whether on the stage or in a hospital ward, I think of my little brother and hope he is proud of me."

'Faisal was unbelievable.. He was a beautiful angel, a perfect child. I was in awe of him & when he died it hit me like a sledgehammer'